Opinion: Stop using memes for rule enforcement

Adam Tumino, Reporter

Memes serve a valuable purpose in our society. Well, maybe not a valuable purpose, but they certainly do have a purpose. That purpose is to entertain. Unfortunately, that is about all they are good for. 

In the residence hall where I live, memes are failing miserably at trying to fulfill another purpose. 

All over my floor, memes are taped onto the walls, urging people to follow the rules. The rules are relatively minor, but the memes have proven to be completely incapable of enforcing them. 

The worst examples are in the bathroom stalls and above the drinking fountains, where brave memes try every day to do their jobs, to no avail.

Stationed above the drinking fountains is that Boromir “one does not simply walk into Mordor” meme from “Lord of the Rings.”

In this case, he is stating that “one does not simply leave food in the water fountain,” but based on the collection of wet vegetables gathered around the drain, it seems quite simple. 

People find draining their noodle cups into the drinking fountain as tempting as the heir of Denethor found the Ring of Power. Hopefully the noodle-drainers will not have to redeem themselves by protecting two Hobbits from an army of Uruk-Hai before being killed by three arrows to the torso. 

On bathroom patrol is that meme of the guy pointing to his head and saying things like “you can’t get fired if you don’t have a job.”

But now he does have a job, and his duties include telling people “they can’t yell at you for not flushing the toilet if you just flush the toilet.”

Luckily for him, he is printed on a piece of paper and his eyes are permanently facing forward. If he could look down and see the contents of the toilet bowl, he would be very disappointed. 

People should not need a meme to tell them to flush the toilet. There is a voice in your head that should be telling you that. If that voice is absent, you may have bigger problems to deal with.

Seeing these memes fail time after time has taught me two things: People are gross, and memes would make terrible cops.

There are other jobs memes can have. But they should not be responsible for public health and safety.  

Also, flush the toilets for god’s sake. I know that you don’t want to touch the handle, but you have to. Just wash your hands after. 

Adam Tumino is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected]